Foam Core Models
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I've not worked much with foam core, but it works pretty nice.
This holiday season my church is making a bunch of Candy Houses. These scale model houses are made with foam core and are decorated entirely with candy. We've done them in the past, but it has been a few years since we've made them.
My class is doing the Lightfoot House. Yesterday, we had a construction party at the house. It took about 5 hours with people of various skill levels. I did all the cutting out of the foam core (used my tablesaw!). Interior cuts were with sharp knives. Assembly was with hot glue and a few staples.
How much work must an aspiring architect or engineering student do with foam core? I'm guessing there are certain standards against which models are judged? Some of the dihedral angles of the roof could get quite tricky cutting them by hand. I did all butt joints since this thing will be lathered in icing and other assorted sugars.
The candy adds a lot of weight, so I did some internal bracing too.
Todd
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Wicked awesome. I look forward to seeing the sugary goodness finished.
We do a gingerbread house each year but nothing that large.
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Ah yes! Brings back memories of my architectural studies.
Very nice.
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This one was made for a "pre-Christmas party" with the team at our latest, big excavation.
The "model" is the church we were digging.
Well, obviously a bit out of scale and details but we ate it up anyway...
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Looks great Todd, although that must've been a breeze for an accomplished woodworker and sketchupper like yourself!
@unknownuser said:
How much work must an aspiring architect or engineering student do with foam core?
Probably not much any more, but when I was at Uni 10 years ago we used it all the time. It's great stuff to use, easy to cut with a scalpel, if you got the right thickness working at 1:100 gave you instant wall thickness and you could scrape the foam off one side of the card to give you perfect butt joints... but it was expensive for us poor students.
You could get 5 pints of Guinness at the students' union for the price of an A1 sheet! 
This is the last ever physical model I made, mostly of foam card.
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Impressive Model Jackson. How did it taste?
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Whoa...I'm thinking gingerbread style house...you know...something to sit on the counter or centerpiece of the table...not actually BE the table.
Christ...that's huge...but I bet at that scale, you can do some nice candy detail work.
You know...I'm seeing it now...Christmas Vacation anyone???? Looks awfully similar to the Griswald's home. Now I know why you did it that size...so the little green army men you plan on placing around it and diving through the windows will be to scale.
Either way...kick ass.
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